"They don't understand the magnitude of the economic crisis": hundreds of senior economists against Netanyahu and Smotrich

Today (Monday), about 300 senior economists wrote a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and warned of the economic crisis Israel is facing. "You do not understand the magnitude of the economic crisis that Israel's economy is facing, you must act in a different way," reads the appeal signed by, among others, Roni Hezekiah, former supervisor of banks and accountant general, Yair Avidan, former supervisor of banks, Professor Yaakov Frankel, governor of the Bank of Israel Formerly, Professor Elhanan Helfman, Harvard University, Haim Shani, former Director General of the Ministry of Finance, Prof. Josh Angrist, 2021 Nobel Laureate in Economics, Professor Eugene Kendall, former Chairman of the National Economic Council, Professor Manuel Trachtenberg, former Chairman of the National Economic Council, Prof. Zvi Eckstein, former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Israel, Prof. Eitan Shashinsky, Hebrew University, Prof. Leo Leiderman, Tel Aviv University.

The letter further claims that "the severe blow that has befallen the State of Israel requires a fundamental change in the order of national priorities and a massive diversion of budgets in favor of dealing with the damage of the war, aid to the victims, and the restoration of the economy. In our estimation, the expected expenditure following the war will be in the order of tens of billions of shekels, and even more Cosmetic changes within the framework of the existing budget do not come close to the required scope of expenditure. The government must face the challenges as soon as possible and try to restore the confidence of the citizens in its ability to do so. A basic and required step to this end is an immediate halt to the financing of all activities that are not essential to the war effort and the restoration of the economy, and first and foremost the coalition funds ".

The economists who signed the letter signed it by saying that "We call on the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance to go through all the expenditure items in the 2023 budget as soon as possible, and to immediately cancel all budget expenditures that are not essential at this difficult time. At the same time, the 2024 budget must be opened, and updated on the basis of order Priorities that reflect the needs of the entire economy in light of the war. We call on the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance to come to their senses! The continuation of the current conduct harms Israel's economy, undermines citizens' trust in the public system, and undermines the State of Israel's ability to recover from the situation in which it found itself."